Bittersweet Chills
by EYES to LIE
Summary: She hated winter, she hated the cold, she hated the snow. She hated everything that came attached with the season, and that was that. But then again, there's always more to a story than one can tell... For Haibane-Akari of the Forum. No obvious pairing.


**Merry Christmas tooo: Haibane-Akari. The elf to my secret-santaness. Sorry this is last minute AND fail.  
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**Disclaimer: I don't own Oban. Jeez...  
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Everything was brilliantly, completely, and horrifically white.

Now it wasn't that she had any immediate problems with the _color_ white in general or the particular shade--she had nothing against vanilla ice cream or marshmallows, in fact, she found she rather enjoyed the treats. But it was the amount of the white that surrounded the windows and the doors and coated the roof and now was landing in her dual-colored hair. It was the chill that was always the prelude or conclusion of this terrible event. Yes, it was winter.

And Eva Wei--formerly known as Molly--hated every minute of it.

It wasn't her first time seeing snow--and she had a terrible sense of foreboding that it wouldn't be her last, either--but she never really could get over the drastic change in temperature that often afflicted the particular province to which she was now situated. Briefly--on a fleeting whim--she thought back to her days at the Stern Boarding Academy. The winters were better there--the snow only lasted a few days--if it came at all--but when it came, the students all knew it meant Winter Break. A chance to go home and spend two or three weeks with their families and loved ones. And, of course, who was left behind to watch their cold backs enter blissfully warm cars?

Only her and the real orphans.

Now she grimaced, thinking of the overbearing sense of loneliness she had felt those days. Of rejection, of hatred, of confusion. And that foolish sense of hope that one day her father would finally come for her. She sighed. _Well, in the end, it all worked out I guess... _She thought to herself. She had her dad back. Then again, she also had two grease-monkey 'brothers' she never saw--this was her affectionate term for Stan and Koji--an aching love for an Alien prince, a dad she had fought to get back but was hardly home, and an ex-partner who just happened to have become the most powerful being in the universe--and who was also madly in love with _her _it turned out. And the winters--though when she thought of all that bunched together with the chill, it seemed rather petty.

A shiver overtook her slim but toned body, and she realized that for the past ten minutes or so, she had been standing outside in the cold she deeply loathed like a zombie.

"Perfect."

When Eva started to trudge through the ever-increasing snow level again, she was trying her best to ignore the frozen water that kept melting inside her shoes and focus on her goal: the front door. Then, once she finally managed to pull the entryway open and step inside to defrost, the ensuing noise was enough to make the girl leap back.

_"Merry Christmas!"_

"Jesus Christ!"

Stan suddenly appeared in the hallway--with a long-sleeved shirt on, amazingly--and grinned with the toothpick between his teeth. "That was yesterday, actually. Don't you keep track of the holidays, Molly?" For a moment she paused--hesitating--then damned if the girl didn't hug him right there. He just smiled and ruffled her hair.

"How's my baby doing?" Eva asked when she finally pulled away.

"_Your _baby, huh?" he snorted. "She's in the hanger, waiting for you to finally age two more years and get your skinny little butt back to her." Stan shook his head. "Now don't waste your time hugging _me_, Molly. Go say hi to the others." he pushed her through the hall door into the living room--and to the crowd of people within.

There was Rick of course--nonchalant, _married_ Rick Thunderbolt--sitting next to him beautiful lawyer of a wife and giving her a happy, "Hey, little mouse." And there was Koji--bashful little techie--hiding behind a plate of Christmas cookies. "Merry Christmas, Molly." And her dad, just sitting there, his white skin made even paler around the fingers because of the present he was holding so tightly.

And then, there _they _were.

She had never quite realized the study in contrast they made. One was slouched over, one was sitting tall and proud. One bulky, one slim. One tanned, one... orange. Two colors to one. Dark eyes to light. And, as usual, Jordan C. Wilde had the inkling of a mustache under his nose--one that seemed ready to come out but was hesitating--and Princes Aikka was either clean shaven or younger than he looked.

Strangely enough, they were sitting together on a two-seated couch. The looks they gave each other made it quite clear this wasn't a chosen seating arrangement--Aikka's hand was on his dagger hilt and Jordan's fingers were twitching like they would just love to wrap themselves around something and squeeze--but when they saw her, a smile broke out on each of their faces, easing the tension immediately before a look of alarm overtook them both as she ran over and hugged them both.

There was a pause before Eva let go, but when she did Jordan's face was--for lack of a more suitable word--just _blissful_ and Aikka's face was a rather disturbing shade of red. However, the touching moment was gone.

"Why the hell didn't you visit?" This was to Jordan, who lost his dreamy look right away. "Aren't you the all-powerful being or something? And you can't even make a _phone call_?" She turned to Aikka. His blue eyes were slightly amused, and his face was a struggle between remaining impassive and smiling. It was rather cute, I'm sure. "...Never mind." she muttered, her cheeks heating up.

"Why doesn't _he _get yelled at?" Jordan crossed his arms, the Avatar's training clearly not having subtracted from his personality. It seems the battle with Canaletto hadn't lessened his dislike for Aikka, either.

"Because his kingdom was over-run by Crogs. He has an excuse not to have visited. You're the goddamn overlord of the universe, who's gonna say no to you if you step outside the atmosphere for a bit?" With that, Eva huffed and sat back down on a chair. "I missed you guys. _Both_ of you." Both offending parties--one more bruised pride-wise than the other--now smiled.

"Sorry Molly,"

"My apologies."

She hunched lower into her woolly and rather soaked scarf, mumbling what could have been an 'Okay', 'Alright', or 'Whatever'. But she smiled, that much you could tell by the crinkling around her eyes.

I could tell you about the rest of the evening. I could tell you that it went off without a hitch, that it involved much laughing and smiling and present giving. That the holographic tree in the middle of the room was the perfect environmentally-friendly touch to the evening, and the equally holographic lights and tinsel strung around it's evergreen branches lit the room up like a thousand stars when the sun finally set. I could tell you that there was lots of exchanging of secret glances and quiet blushes. I could tell you that there was invitations to visit on future occasions that were graciously accepted. I could tell you that confessions where made, and others were made in return.

I could tell you that a secret kiss was shared on the balcony.

I could even tell you who shared it, and who was happy and who was heart-broken. I could tell you all of this, I suppose.

But, in the end, there's too much to tell.

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**Sorry for the weak ending, but I was pushing myself to finish this...**


End file.
